Enjoy your life
…an engaging personal drama that quietly opens a relevant dialogue with its audience
It’s safe to say that the equality movement has been a little slow on the uptake in certain Asian cultures. But that’s not to say that the status quo isn’t beginning to be nudged, with films such as I Don’t Fire Myself finding purchase in mainstream media.
Written and directed by Tae-gyeom LEE, the film follows the struggles of Jung-Eun (Da-in YOO from 2019’s The Snob), an employee of an electric provider, who is relegated to a small coastal subcontractor outside the city after her abusive male colleagues attempt to oust her from head office.
Once she arrives at the new outpost, where she finds herself to be the only female employee, Jung-eun faces a new wave of misogynistic and sexist challenges before one of her co-workers, Choong-ski (Jung-se OH of It’s Okay To Not Be Okay fame), who happens to be raising three daughters on his own while working numerous jobs, reluctantly takes her under his wing.
As a workplace drama, I Don’t Fire Myself is an effective insight into the abusive culture seen in Korea’s corporate world, but where the film really shines, is in its ability to showcase the psychological damage such a culture inflicts on its victims.
Making his directorial debut, Tae-gyeom shows remarkable sensitivity with his characters, instilling his protagonist with a fragile strength and insight that never indulges problematic narratives or victimhood. Da-in YOO’s portrayal of Jung-eun is beautifully realised, with the actor deftly embodying a vulnerability and desperate determination that adds a heartbreaking realism to her fleeting moments of self-loathing, alcohol abuse and her eventual lashing out at those manipulating her career path.
I Don’t Fire Myself isn’t exactly the perfect metaphor for the social issue it tackles, but it does effectively use its narrative to deliver an engaging personal drama that quietly opens a relevant dialogue with its audience.
In my personal opinion, the plot and setting of this film is too slow and monotonous. For the first hour even I felt sleepy while watching it. Apart from that, the plot is also a bit confusing at the start (or am I the slow one? LOL). If I don't force it (because of Oh Jung-se for sure), maybe I'll choose to drop off. However, in the second half of the hour, I started to feel the tension, the film also started to show its direction, although it wasn't extremely exciting either.
Written and directed by Tae-gyeom LEE, the film follows the struggles of Jung-Eun (Da-in YOO from 2019’s The Snob), an employee of an electric provider, who is relegated to a small coastal subcontractor outside the city after her abusive male colleagues attempt to oust her from head office.
Once she arrives at the new outpost, where she finds herself to be the only female employee, Jung-eun faces a new wave of misogynistic and sexist challenges before one of her co-workers, Choong-ski (Jung-se OH of It’s Okay To Not Be Okay fame), who happens to be raising three daughters on his own while working numerous jobs, reluctantly takes her under his wing.
As a workplace drama, I Don’t Fire Myself is an effective insight into the abusive culture seen in Korea’s corporate world, but where the film really shines, is in its ability to showcase the psychological damage such a culture inflicts on its victims.
Making his directorial debut, Tae-gyeom shows remarkable sensitivity with his characters, instilling his protagonist with a fragile strength and insight that never indulges problematic narratives or victimhood. Da-in YOO’s portrayal of Jung-eun is beautifully realised, with the actor deftly embodying a vulnerability and desperate determination that adds a heartbreaking realism to her fleeting moments of self-loathing, alcohol abuse and her eventual lashing out at those manipulating her career path.
I Don’t Fire Myself isn’t exactly the perfect metaphor for the social issue it tackles, but it does effectively use its narrative to deliver an engaging personal drama that quietly opens a relevant dialogue with its audience.
In my personal opinion, the plot and setting of this film is too slow and monotonous. For the first hour even I felt sleepy while watching it. Apart from that, the plot is also a bit confusing at the start (or am I the slow one? LOL). If I don't force it (because of Oh Jung-se for sure), maybe I'll choose to drop off. However, in the second half of the hour, I started to feel the tension, the film also started to show its direction, although it wasn't extremely exciting either.
Was this review helpful to you?
